To support Primary Care Trusts and local authorities, the Association of Public Health Observatories and Department of Health have developed the Health Inequalities Intervention Toolkit. This is designed to assist evidence-based local service planning and commissioning, including Joint Strategic Needs Assessments.

The Life Expectancy Tool for Spearheads also supports planning to achieve the national health inequalities Public Service Agreement target:

Starting with local authorities, by 2010 to reduce by at least 10 per cent the gap in life expectancy at birth between the fifth of areas with the worst health and deprivation (the Spearhead Group) and the population as a whole

The tool presents figures on gaps in life expectancy between each Spearhead area and England as a whole, based on data for 2006-08. An improved set of tables and charts are available which illustrate the causes of death, and age groups, which are making the greatest contributions to these gaps. To access the tool click here.

To support commissioning decisions, this part of the tool allows users to model the impact that systematically implementing evidence-based interventions at scale can have on reducing inequalities in life expectancy and All Age All Cause Mortality between each Spearhead area and England. A new intervention illustrates the gains in life expectancy which can be made by lowering levels of high blood sugar. This supplements the original interventions, which have also been updated within this latest version of the tool:

• increasing numbers of smoking quitters
• lowering infant mortality
• prescribing antihypertensives and statins

To go to the intervention element of the tool, click here then select the Spearhead area you wish to model before clicking the Commissioning Interventions button

Linked below is a Help file for the tool which includes:

• Instructions and a guide to the tool
• Notes on interpreting results
• Frequently asked questions
• Technical document containing details of the data and methods used within the tool

Data from the Life Expectancy Gaps part of the tool can be accessed from the Excel workbook linked in the ‘Further resources’ section below.

Summary documents containing charts and tables from the tool are also linked below for each Spearhead local authority.

View trends in infant death rates and find information on factors which the evidence shows will influence infant mortality. Assess the impact of modifying the factors which contribute to higher infant death rates in the routine and manual group compared to all births within marriage/joint registrations.

Find information on within, as well as between, area inequalities. Access data on gaps in life expectancy between the most deprived quintile of each local authority in England, and a range of comparator areas. Estimate the effect on life expectancy if certain evidence-based interventions are increased.

Access the Health Inequalities Intervention Toolkit here

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The Health Inequalities Intervention Toolkit has been developed by the Association of Public Health Observatories, working in partnership with the Department of Health.